In India, one woman is raped every 13 minutes, according to statistics. Compared to this, there is very little justice for these rapes. Being punished is like counting on one's fingers.
Many such rape victims are fighting for justice. Some of them have been fighting for years.
One such woman is 18-year-old Lalita (this is not her real name. The name has been changed at her request). Lalita's life is different from other women her age.
She became pregnant in 2016 after being raped by a man known to her family. Then one of her sons was born. The boy is now one and a half years old.
Lalita was born into a poor Dalit family in a village in Uttar Pradesh. They are two sisters. He is the youngest of them all. Mother has already died. Father is an illiterate day laborer.
The man accused of rape is a friend of his father. He is 55 years old. He is accused of raping Lalita with a knife while she was taking her friend's daughter to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
He told Lalita's father that if he applied for some government help, he would have no problem marrying her.
Lalita said she did not tell her father or sister about the rape back home. But a few months later, when the matter of her pregnancy could no longer be suppressed, the incident of rape became known. When the women around her started asking her questions, Lalita told them what had happened in her life on her way to Lucknow.
"I want to see him in jail. Nothing more," said Lalita.
Protests against rape are often seen in India.
His day laborer father then lodged a complaint with the police on June 24, 2016. About six months have passed since the incident. But two years later, on June 20, the accused rapist was arrested.
The investigation into the rape case has been delayed - she was arrested shortly after the BBC published a report on the matter.
But no case has been filed against the accused till the time of his arrest. Police say they were waiting for the results of the DNA test.
A police officer told BBC Hindi that there were 5,000 cases pending in Lucknow alone due to delays in getting the DNA report.
Lalita has also revealed about her rape. Her father also eventually went to the police. But there are many women in India who never reveal that they have been raped. Going to the police is a far cry.
And women who report rape and turn to the authorities for justice have to wait a long time. This struggle to seek justice sometimes continues year after year.
In India, four rape cases have been convicted in one of them.
They said the entire state system, including the police and the courts, was working at a very slow pace. These organizations do not seem to be very active in getting justice done quickly.
Analysts say one of the reasons for this is the lack of manpower in the police department, they have to do a lot of work and their salaries are very low. At the same time there are many cases in the court.
But victims like Lalita, who are poor and illiterate, are worse off. And there is no point in being a woman from an untouchable community like Dalits.
But recently a new law has been passed in India to protect these Dalit women. It has been said that if a woman is raped, she will have to pay a large amount of compensation, which is about five lakh rupees. And if she is a victim of gang rape, she will have to pay compensation of eight lakh rupees.
The new law calls for compensation to be paid to the woman by the state government after the police accept the rape case as a case. In other words, the accused woman has been asked to pay this compensation before the accused is convicted through the judicial process.
Dalit movement in Uttar Pradesh.
But Lalita and her father say they have not received any compensation and do not know if they can get such compensation. They said no one had ever told them about it.
It is also learned that Lalita's statement before the magistrate was not recorded till 25 days before the complaint was lodged with the police. But according to the Supreme Court order, the victim's statement must be recorded within 24 hours of filing the complaint. If there is a delay, the magistrate must be informed in writing about the reason for the delay.
There is no more serious crime than rape. The victim will have consequences for the rest of his life. This must be regulated in each state and the criminal must be punished most severely.